It's been a long time since I came in late to the office

Yea, last time was at my former workplace - when we had to travel the previous day. By late, I mean really late like 12pm onwards. Ganee would allow use to come in late usually because the travels practically took the whole day. Another reason was because we only got to be back home for a weekend or so before flying back to Brunei. He was letting us spending time with family I guess.

There was one time when we had to stay back for CIMB up until 2am or something. It was nice to see "You can come in by 10 tomorrow" on my phone that night. Also there was a time when I didn't sleep for 3 days for some major bugs fixing/feature requests but still had to go to work. Of course I didn't look so well that day and he noticed it. After making asking around the office, he found out why and let me go off early at 3pm.

Come to think about it, if I were to stay awake for some work at my current workplace I don't think I would do it though. There's no kind of that flexibility here so why would I want torture myself. Besides, being appreciative is not what they are - on the contrary, they like to take the credits away from you. Sadly, this is how the government works. Why would I lament on this I don't know. It's not going to change soon anyway no matter how much I talk about it.

A little appreciation goes a long long way. For me, if I know my work is being recognized I would happily volunteer if there's a need to stay back. I knew Ganee was observant enough to know the effort I put in that time so I didn't mind to spend more time on it to get it done. I knew it would be reflected in the bonus. They bought me cakes on my birthday, they treated us to TGI after projects had been completed, they got us to Redang for 3D/2N holiday, the pantry always stocked up with food and we had PS2 to relax in between stresses. 3 days with no sleep? I didn't mind at all.

Hey I love my job, it's really easy to make me go the extra mile - be flexible, give laptops/dual screens and treat me like a human being.

OSCC people are really cool, seriously. But MAMPU really is killing us. Usually we would come on top which I believe came from the strength we all share - we know what we do and we respect each other. Yes we have our flaws but let's not be negative now. We have just won AIPA for MyMeeting, the mood should be happy - other than that, really don't know what to say on this. I should be happy but then again, for something to win an AIPA, it should be something more. Anyway, they were so happy today that they took pictures among themselves with the trophies they forgot the team who developed it in the first place. I wonder where that RM10k money prize will go. It is definitely interesting to watch and I suspect it would make a good bitching post next time.

I want to do some bitchin

I have been restraining myself from blogging recently mainly because if I did, it would be endless bitching that it would irritate some people. The thing is, lots of stuff has happened to me in the last 2, 3 weeks and I'm not in the most peachy condition right now. Small thing would just piss me off just like that, I don't even understand it.

Just to lighten up my mood, the pic below happened many weeks ago - I love tea! Sweet sweet tea.

[caption id="attachment_1321" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I put it all that minus 2 into my JCO tea. Couldn't help it. I'm officially a sugar freak."]

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Yea you can gasp now, or maybe stare in awe. Friends, you shouldn't be surprised by now. You know me. =P

Oh wardrobe update: I got a new pairs of jeans. Yeah!

To do list:

• Apply for 5 days leave (I still have like 10 days more till end of year)


• Go to Kelana Jaya to pick up laundry


• Write letter to Hussein Jalal (it's been a year already!)


• Get the car washed

IM => Identi.ca + Twitter + Facebook

Like everyone else, I have so many places to update my so called status/what am I doing at the moment/my rants and raves. In my case, I have Identi.ca (open source version of Twitter) + Twitter (so many following me here) + Facebook (I have 100+ friends there) status to update. You have to admit, it's hard to keep up these days.

I've found a way to update all 3 using any IM (I use Pidgin). The idea is you send your status via IM to update your Identi.ca, in turn this will update your Twitter and Facebook account. Obviously you need to have accounts on all of them. After all is done, follow these steps:

On Identi.ca

• Go to Settings page -> IM tab. Enter your Jabber/Gtalk email address


• Go to your preferred IM. Add update@identi.ca in your buddies list


• You'll receive a message to validate the email address you just entered belongs to you.


• Click on the link provided to confirm it


• Go to Settings page -> Twitter tab. Enter your Twitter username and password


• Check the box 'Automatically send my notices to Twitter'. Click 'Add'.

On Facebook

• Login and add Twitter application. Click on 'Allow'.


• Enter your Twitter username and password


• It will bring you the app page. Click on '+ Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status'


• 'Allow Status Updates from Twitter?' -> click on 'Allow Status Updates'

Now you're all set. Whenever you want to update your status, send the message to update@identi.ca like you would to anyone in your buddies list.Technology rocks!

The only thing I like from MyGOSSCON

Tadaaa!
[caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I have this in blue and orange and I like them alot. Peace!!"]

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I had to man (woman) the booth, quite depressing coz every now and then people would call me to explain stuff to booth visitors. I missed some of the talks I wanted to listen to!

FOSS.my 2008 was awesome!

Great event.

Now that's an example of how an open source event should be - laidback, fun, 'protocol-less', various informative tech talks, responsive audience and most importantly everyone was there for one same reason: the love in open source and building a community, not because they had no choice ordered to go there by their bosses.

If you weren't there, honestly speaking, you missed out on ALOT. Whether it was because of other commitments or just plain intimidated that you didn't come that day, well, come to FOSS.my 2009 then (hopefully there'll be one). You will surprised at how friendly and helpful these people are!

I can't stress enough how awesome it was and how much you missed out if you weren't there. Worth my weekend.

[caption id="attachment_1271" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Full house at FOSS.my 2008"]

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[caption id="attachment_1272" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Q-ing for food"]

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[caption id="attachment_1273" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="FOSSchix.my killing some free time"]

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[caption id="attachment_1274" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="FOSSchix.my side session with Pia Waugh of Software Freedom International - there were actually more girls behind the camera"]

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[caption id="attachment_1275" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="FOSSchix.my side session with Pamela Fox of Google - had to move to bigger room since audience was alot more than expected"]

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And I AM SO PROUD OF FOSSCHIX.MY MEMBERS WHO WERE THERE. That's a sign of true passion and I really appreciate it. May we become stronger together and you rock! I love you mwah mwah mwahhhh!!!

MyGOSSCON is finally over, together the headaches that came with it

It's over. Phew!

[caption id="attachment_1258" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Currently I don't have pix with the whole team in it, so I put this in instead. My good friend Adda!"]

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Girls, FOSSchix.my is on!

Yeap you heard me. Head over to the website and register yourselves. It's new and we have activities planned for the members. For a start, we're participating in the upcoming, ever awesome, FOSS.my.

Chix, let's have fun, our way.

Come and visit us. See you there!

Of government standards

This week really made me cringe.

If you're suppose to do a presentation, why would you ask someone else to prepare the slides for you? You're the big boss and because of that you're being kept busy all the time (which is fine), but since you're up there I assume you're good at managing your resources. You're at managerial level for crying out loud.

I don't understand, don't you feel incompetent now that you have to rely on your staff to save your life? Don't you care enough to get to know the subject you're going to present to do the slides yourself?

I had to do notes for the slides you're going to present. I was so dumbfounded at first as why would you need notes when the slides are full of text you can just read off them. I thought you need some guidance on technical aspects of it, and I had no problem with that, I can try to help out whenever I can. After all, you're like my boss anyway and some notes should do it. But suddenly I found out from my actual boss that you need a speech text for your slides. WTF?

You're going to read for a presentation??

For someone who's from MAMPU, it's a laughing matter. Some people would just roll their eyes in disbelief. Doing slides for them is no longer taboo actually, but speech-like notes? Knocked me off my feet, in a very bad way.

And since such a long time I want to blog about this: there are so many ranks in the public sector that I think they all are doing the same job, it's just a matter who gets the respect, the red carpet and all the glory. This is where open source community stands out, the right people who actually do the work gets the credit. Not some people sitting comfortably in a big room waiting for their asses to be served.